Blizzard and Arena - How well do they understand it?
 

Arena is a sub-game in WoW. It is a relatively new concept, and is very different to how the rest of the game functions. It is supposed to bring a competitive edge to Player-vs-Player combat.

This isn't a bash-Blizzard thread, so please don't turn it into one.

I would like to see other peoples opinions on this: Do you think the Blizzard devs (mainly Tom Chilton and crew) have the forsight, and Arena experience to adequately balance the current Arena system? Do you think they are at the cutting edge of Arena strategy? Do you believe they actually play Arena and/or are capable of achieving a competitive rating?

Do comments from Blizzard such as this shake your faith?

I'm sure about at least one thing.

They havent tested Blade's Edge with pets vs an opponent with brains. Two-level arena with the current pet AI just isnt very balanced.

I'd say that, in my experience, Blizzard has a much greater understanding of arena than any single player I've ever encountered.

Regarding that comment, I think that if they're looking to prevent mages from using Iceblock twice vs the same opponents then they'd need to make hypothermia 1 minute or longer. Or remove IB from the list of abilities that cold snap affects. Two iceblocks in 30 seconds is very powerful though.

I don't think the problem is Blizzard not understanding arenas more likely it is players not understanding Blizzard!

No they won't be able to maintain a gladiator-rank or something like that (pure speculation!). WoW is a mainstream game for a mainstream audience.

One could alternatively argue that 2 classes having fire and forget anti drinking mechanisms isn't very balanced on nagrang either.

Of course against skilled they play the pet game better but non pet classes fighting against warlocks and hunter have got to love BEA.

Make pets jump? I'd say make all arenas 2 levels or more so we can use "brains" to render ourselves out of combat so we can drink. That, or give us all pets so we can use "even more brains" to make the pet auto attack the healer so he can't drink.
Sorry, I had to reply with sarcasm to your whine. You should be more objective.

I think Blizzard is aware of the arena and where it stands much more than we think. Keep in mind that they have the most accurate data about class representation across all brackets, most favorite talent specs, gear preference, etc. If you see the lately popular chart on class balance, you will notice that, save hunters, all classes are balanced in the arena as a whole. Some classes (warrior, paladin) are popular in all brackets, while others (druids, rogues) are present in 2s and 3s. Buffing druids or rogues so they can be viable in 5s will just make them OP in the other brackets. Hunters on the other hand, are lowest in all brackets, and it's not surprise they get a quite a buff in 2.3. I think that when Blizzard designed the arena, they had no idea how it will turn out, i.e. they were unaware of the competitive level the arenas would get.
I trust they will only improve arena experience further in next patches.

I'm puzzled by the Hypothermia nerf, but I only see it as nerf in 5s. Can't comment much about this, really.

First off, I believe arena's are a huge step forward for enjoyable PvP content. BG's are too impresonal and world PvP can easily be very unbalanced (PvP isnt much fun if its 3 vs you). Arena's have made me fall in love with PvP when before I avoided it like the plague. I honestly doubt I could have designed a better system myself.

Second, in regards to your point of balance, remember that the game is not intended to be balanced around arena PvP. The balance/developement team is charged with the impossible task of balancing all 9 class's to the best of their abilities in a vast array of different area's such as World PvP, 2v2 arena, 3v3 arena, 5v5 arena, PvE end game, 5 man heroics/instances, solo play, farming, etc. I'm sure Blizzard would be able to make a lot of improvements to 5v5 arena to improve balance but in doing so they could be furthering or creating an inbalance in other area's.

As far as whether or not I think they are at the cutting edge or arena strategy, my years playing Magic: The Gathering have taught me that while designers are certaintly able to influence the way they desire certain things to be played, they are rarely able to predict how things will actually unfold. The developement team contains a handful of staff to test and explore new talents/abilities but after they are released there are millions of other players eagerly waiting to see how they can exploit new mechanics/abilities; There is no possible way for a developement team to be able to completly test any change in every forseable way and release it in a timely manner (Which is also the main reason why the PTR's exist).

Finally, I do not know if Blizzard is able to achieve "competative" rankings (How could any of us know?) but I do believe that they participate in the arena. For one, its their job, but due to the remarkable success of WoW and its ability to keep me hooked since day 1 I can firmly say that they would not have been able to acheive the results they have without putting forth an abundance of passion into the game. I'd be willing to wager that the developers were more axious to play in the arena's in the live client than any of us were.

[Rogue] Cheat Death (Subtlety) chance to trigger increased to 33/66/100% [up from 10/20/30%] and now also causes the rogue to take 90% less damage for 3 seconds when the effect triggers. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.
This look like rogue 5v5 buff to me.

Statistically Warriors, Druids and Warlocks have the edge on Arena combat at the moment. Next patch we are seeing:

- Buff to Druids
- Buff to MS Warriors
- Slight nerf to Warlocks
- No major buffs to any other class, save Ret pallys.(yes, I left out Hunters because its not a big buff, as everyone seems to think)

I play a Priest, Druid, Hunter, Mage, rogue in competitive arena, all between 2000 and 2250 rating.
I can tell you without any sense of hesitation that the druid is by far the most powerful Healer out of every other class in 2v2 and 3v3. I can also tell you that my Hunter is the least powerful (despite a 2200 3v3 rating).

So I do have a bit of doubt when it comes to Blizzards ability to balance the lower brackets of Arena, and it appears to me that they have not played in high 2v2 brackets.

Yes, it is, but try finding a Rogue that's deep in Subtlety and actually getting a good rating. The current Rogue buffs aren't so much balancing Rogues with other classes as they are balancing Subtlety with Combat. The status quo, from a class perspective, should remain.

And, once again, they've added a cooldown driven mechanic to the Rogue class. Does anyone really think that's what's necessary, at this point? Weren't the first 4 non-talented ones (Evasion, Sprint, Vanish, Cloak of Shadows) enough, let alone all the talented ones?

This not a QQ about the state of warriors, but what buff are you talking about? I saw some talent points get shifted about that mess with my pve spec, and changes nothing for my pvp one, a 33% reduction in the duration of hamstring, a slight reduction in the proc chance of mace stuns, and debatable as a nerf is the loss of disarm immunity.

Sweeping strikes being 10 charges and castable in berserker stance is in my eyes a huge buff. Especially in 5v5 when you intercept someone with a full rage bar who´s about to be focus fired who´s clumped up with someone and cast sweeping strikes for some nasty sidedamage that has to be healed as well (also imagine if they are stupid enough to be in a group of 4 and you start off with a 8 hit whirlwind). Also for 2v2 you could debate going for Last Stand for a lot of extra survivability now that Improved Intercept and Death Wish are in the arms tree.

As for what I would definately like to see changed in the arena is that pets keep you in combat. A Warlock really shouldn´t be able to stick a pet on you with autopurge and auto spelllock and just forget about you but still making you unable to drink.

...

I've seen this quite a few times now, and I always go back to mmo-champ and check the notes and always fail to see how I'm getting a major buff next patch. Would you care to elaborate please?

PVP spec warriors did not get any significant buffs. Swapping Sweeping Strikes with Deathwish and Weapon Mastery with Imp. Intercept was strictly a Fury nerf/change. The only sort of buff PVP Warriors received is the ability to use Sweeping Strikes in beserker stance, which is OK but not a "big buff" worth listing over hunter changes.

I don't think you have to be some sort of 2500+ in all brackets Arena master in order to balance arena games. I'm sure they're very aware of what classes stand where (http://elitistjerks.com/f38/t16857-s...ass_abundance/) and get more feedback (and whining) than they could ever want. Mages are part of the extremely successful 5v5 (Warrior/Priest/Pally/Shaman/Mage) but are very under-represented in 2v2, how do you fix that without making them ridiculously overpowered in 5v5, is it even possible?

Hunters are pretty much the only class that is mediocre in every bracket, and they are receiving buffs. Sure, they're not game breaking but they are aware the problem exists and working towards a solution. There is only so much they can change at once while maintaining a semblance of balance.